Atton's Unexpected Detour
by Bald as Malak
Summary: Holiday Challenge story: The real reason why Atton ended up on Peragus. [Entry for the greatly delayed holiday challenge.]


**ATton's Unexpected Detour**

"Lossefalme's story choice #2.

...+ Wants: The REAL reason why Atton was locked up on Peragus. He claims it was "just some trumped up charge", but I have a feeling there's a bigger story there.

...+ Doesn't want: Something obvious or easy. Be creative and have lots of fun with it!"

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_Completely last minute, unbeta'ed, got to go sleep now… _

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**Atton's Unexpected Detour **

**Atton. _Blue Heaven_, a smuggler's freighter**

"Look, Evani, how was I supposed it was your sister…"

"Liar," the Twi'lek shouts. "We're practically twins!" Evani's lekku are moving like snakes on top of her head. She moves towards me, and I step back again, but I'm running out of room. There's only so much space on this small smuggling freighter that Evani and Evatu own.

I've got my hands out, and I'm putting on the old charming smile that I've practiced in the mirror more times than I'll ever let anyone know. Evani is holding a wrench, and she looks ready to use it. I'm not too worried, because she doesn't look like much of a fighter, but experience has shown me to always be wary of an angry woman.

"Look, you know how much Dantooine Flash Fire we consumed last night," I say, trying to keep the pleading out of my voice. "And like you said, babe, you ladies look almost the—"

Then I'm ducking as she swings at me. The blow passes over my head, sending sparks out from the passage wall where it hits. I keep back-pedalling as Evani stalks me, her eyes glittering like the edge of a freshly sharpened vibrodagger.

"You told me to go to your room," she says, her voice low and methodical, "and that you would come as soon as you got my sister to bed. Did you think I wouldn't notice it when you didn't show up!" She starts to swing at me again, but I duck around the corner, entering the cockpit and bumping into Evatu.

"So, this is where you've been hiding "sister." Tell Evani what happened—"

Evatu hesitates, her lekku unnaturally still and her eyes big, dancing between Evani and me. _Frack, she's going to duck out of this one!_ Cursing silently, I remind myself never to get involved with sisters.

"Look, Evani," I say, making my words as soft and as reasonable as I can, "the truth is that your sister told me that I had made a mistake. Evatu _told_ me that I had gotten you two confused, and that I had just sent Evatu to my room, not her. Then she got all high and mighty about what a bastard I was and demanded I make up for it." Evani makes a move towards me, and I back up until I hit the control panel. "Frack, Evani, you know you're—"

Evani swings again and I move aside instinctively to avoid the blow. The wrench smashes into the controls. Lights go out everywhere, and a hissing noise comes out from the panel.

"Sith's nuts, what's that?" Bending down, I start to examine the panel, but my head explodes.

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I'm not sure how much time passes before I wake up. The first thing I notice is the uncertain smile on the blue Twi'lek face hovering over mine. Then I discover that the back of my head is throbbing and my hands are tied to the bed. Instinctively, I start counting pazaak cards in my head, until the panic goes away.

When I'm calm, I carefully examine the face above me, determined not to make a mistake this time. It's Evatu.

"Look, "sister," whatever game you're playing, someone needs to fix that panel or we're going to be floating in space for a long time."

"Jaq, there is no one who's better at fixing things that Evani, so you just relax there like a good little boy." Evatu tests the bonds holding me down, testing each one carefully. I don't know where she learnt to tie knots but I can't find any slack that will help me escape.

After she's done, she stands over me for a while, considering me silently. Then, she walks out the door. I hear her murmur something to her sister, and then her sister responds, her voice loud and bitter. "Good, you just keep an eye on him and let me finish this. And then, we'll talk about what happened last night, okay Evatu?"

I hear footsteps clanking on the walkway and then Evatu enters the room. Softly, she closes the door, nervously glancing down the hall as she does so. But all I hear is muffled cursing and the occasional bang.

"Don't worry, Atton," Evatu says, her voice bitter and her eyes avoiding mine. "Once my sister gets that panel fixed, she'll remember what a slut I am and forgive you."

Now, I've been caught in sisterly competition before, but this is the first time I've heard one admit that she's wrong. "And I have to stay here like this until then?" I sigh.

"Well, as long as you're so attractively packaged, and I'm in deep bantha poodoo once again, maybe—"

"Look, Evatu, you're really easy on the eyes and…" I pause, listening to make sure that Evani working on the control panel. "And, given last night, you would be my port of choice for any future smuggling operations. But given the situation now, if you come any closer I'm going to start yelling."

Evatu doesn't respond at first, she just looks at me with these big eyes. There's a sadness around her, one that has always been there, though I hadn't really seen until now. Or maybe it's my imagination. So many Twi'lek women are sad or angry these days. They used to be more fun, but something seems to be affecting them. _Frack, something seems to be putting everyone into tailspin._

"She always gets them, you know," Evatu says finally, quietly, backing up from me and turning her gaze towards her hands. "Every time we go to a bar, she gets the good looking guy and I get the jerk who thinks he can pay me two creds for a good time. But that's not the worse part of it. It's the advice she gives. 'You should be more confident. You're too shy, too quiet.'"

I wonder if I should say something, but she's on a roll. I'm not even sure if she remembers I'm here as she continues.

"I think the worse one is: 'A good Twi'lek girl knows how to work a man.' Well, I'm not a good 'Twi'lek girl.' I like to read books, to watch the stars go buy and study variations of dejarik opening moves. And pazaak bores me to death. There's so little strategy to it; it's mostly luck."

Now that's going too far, so I open my mouth to say something, but she barrels right through whatever protest I was about to muster.

"What's wrong," Evatu says, her eyes finally looking at me again, her voice half angry and half pleading, "with being quiet? Why do I need to be someone I'm not? Why can't a guy just see me for who I am, and want to spend time with me anyway? Why can't I find someone good and noble?"

_Noble?! For frack's sake! _"Look," I say, fighting to keep my voice calm, "the problem is that there aren't many guys who like girls that complicated. If you want to find a guy like that, you're working the wrong crowds, sister. There's not one cantina between Coruscant and the Outer Rim where you're going to find a guy like that."

"Why not?" Evatu cries out.

"Because we don't have time for all that. Bring in the cargo, get paid, get laid, move on to the next job. We like to keep moving, and keep things simple. That's just the way it is. You want variations of dejarik, go to the Jedi Temple." My mouth is open to say more, but then the door bangs open and Evani sweeps into the room. This time, the anger in her eyes is directed towards her sister.

"Not just content with one go, are you sis? Came for seconds?"

"I didn't do anything," Evatu says, her voice quiet and her face turned towards the floor.

"Now that would be a first. Did you really think I wouldn't remember Kase or Jon? Why is it that you always have to have a piece of my men? It's not like there aren't tons out there waiting for a piece of your 'fine Twi'lek ass.' So stop poaching mine!"

With each word, Evatu seems to shrink inside herself, withering before the tirade that Evani continues to unleash at her. And something stirs inside me, a feeling I haven't touched for longer than I could remember. I'm not sure what it is, but apparently my mouth does.

"Look babe, it was my fault…" I start, but then Evani turns her furious eyes on me.

"What?" she snaps.

I can't believe what I was just going to say. I can't believe it when I continue. "Look, just leave her alone. I did everything, just like you said. It wasn't her fault."

Evani stares at me for a long time, her jaw clenched and her fists bunched. Finally, she turns her gaze to Evatu. "Is this true, sis?"

Evatu hesitates, her eyes rising up barely enough to consider me. "No—" Evatu starts to say finally, but Evani cuts her off.

"Well isn't this sweet and wonderful," she sneers. Turning to me, she continues. "Look, 'hero,' I don't know what game you're playing or what happened to seedy, fun guy I invited for this ride, but you are getting off this ship at the nearest spaceport."

Evani turns towards her sister for a moment. "Get out," she barks and Evatu scurries out of the room. "Lucky for you," Evani sneers when her sister is gone, "I'm already on course for Peragus to get some fuel and equipment. We'll be there in a day. In the meantime, why don't you just lie there and think about where all this sudden 'nobility' has gotten you." And then she walks out the door. A second later, the lock clicks.

I do think about it. "Nobility." The word makes me squirm, and the straps that stop me from doing so remind me why I've always avoided worrying about others. Until now.

And yet, as I think about it, I realize that I've been feeling like something's missing for a long time now. I'd always put it down to some dregs of guilt from my past, like when I killed that Jedi who saved me from a life of dark slavery. Or all those other Jedi during the war. _Sith's nuts, what haven't I done!_

_But this thing, it's not that. I want to do something— Frack, was I just about to say 'good?'_ Chuckling to myself, I start working on the straps, trying to find a weakness in them. It keeps my mind busy.

But I get tired and bored, and when I give up trying to free myself, the thoughts return. And, yeah, as much as I don't want to admit it, I do want to do something for someone else. Just something good for a change.

I don't know where this feeling is coming from. _Was it that last Jedi who planted this in me like some kind of holoweb virus? Or is this something to do with the Force she showed me?_

The answers to these questions don't come, though I think about them a lot over the next day, even when Evani is weaving the ship through the Peragus asteroid field like a drunk cannock. And then I'm standing outside the local cantina, my bag in my hand and a few creds remaining from our last job.

In my head, though, are the shining eyes of Evatu, which I had glimpsed as her sister pushed me off the ship. And frack, if it doesn't make me feel something, right here in the middle of my chest. It certainly feels a lot better than the heartburn I got from eating Evani's cooking.

But whatever it all means, I'm now stuck in the poodoo pit of the universe, and I don't have enough credits to book passage out of here. Luckily, drinks are cheap in this cantina and I see a large group of miners playing a game of pazaak in the corner.

Making my way towards them, I push the thoughts on 'nobility' to the corner of my mind. I've got some losers to fleece.


End file.
